JEDDAH, November 15, 2026 (WAFA) – The virtual media forum, titled "The E1 Settlement Project and Jerusalem: Geographical, Humanitarian, and Legal Dimensions and Their Implications for the Two-State Solution," called for strengthening cooperation and coordination among news agencies and media institutions across member states to ensure that facts regarding Israeli colonies—foremost among them the E1 settlement project—reach regional and international public opinion.

The call came in the final recommendations issued by the forum, organized on Sunday by the Union of OIC News Agencies (UNA) in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of the State of Palestine to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The recommendations urged sustained media follow-up on the E1 colonial plan, monitoring its implementation phases as well as field and legal developments to keep the issue high on the agenda of the media and international public opinion, while utilizing the OIC's legal and media observatories.

The forum recommended adopting a comprehensive media strategy regarding colonial projects based on the following pillars:

• Humanizing coverage: Highlighting stories of daily resilience among Bedouin communities, alongside national and field efforts aimed at keeping residents steadfast on their land and supporting their livelihoods.
• Using precise legal and international terminology: Clearly distinguishing between the approval of plans, the issuance of tenders, the awarding of contracts, and the actual commencement of construction on the ground.
• Utilizing maps and explanatory visual materials: Illustrating the project's location, area, and proximity to East Jerusalem and the Ma'ale Adumim colony, as well as its potential impact on geographical contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank.

The forum also urged enhanced communication and coordination between media outlets in OIC member states and Palestinian experts to provide updated, documented facts on colonial projects and their legal and humanitarian dimensions.

It called for convening a joint international conference between the OIC and the United Nations bringing together legal, human rights, and urban planning experts to develop a time-bound action plan addressing Israeli colonies, particularly E1.

The recommendations stressed cooperation with UN mechanisms to monitor colony construction, land seizures, demolitions, forced displacement, and colonist violence, accompanied by the submission of regular reports.

They further called for banning trade, investment, financing, and public procurement linked to colonies, and obligating corporations to divest from settlement-related activities and respect human rights.

The forum demanded the imposition of coordinated sanctions on entities responsible for colony expansion, forced displacement, and colonist violence in order to strengthen accountability and curb impunity.

It also called for establishing an international fund for the protection and legal assistance of threatened Palestinian communities, alongside supporting accountability mechanisms. The fund should finance legal representation, land registration support, diplomatic monitoring, protective presence, emergency shelter, and the reconstruction of civilian structures unlawfully demolished.

It urged recourse to international justice and the inclusion of the E1 plan file within the ongoing investigation into settlement crimes as a full-fledged war crime.

The forum recommended intensifying diplomatic action within international organizations—foremost among them the United Nations—to pursue entities and individuals involved in colonial projects, while strengthening international alliances with peoples, governments, and organizations opposing Israeli policies and practices.

It also recommended forming an open-ended joint committee comprising participating entities and experts to continuously follow up on developments in the settlement file and coordinate joint action to counter them across political, diplomatic, and media fronts.

For his part, Palestine's Permanent Representative to the OIC, Ambassador Hadi Shibli, commended the outcomes and recommendations of the virtual media forum.

He affirmed that the success of the forum is the fruit of concerted efforts and ongoing coordination among the organizing bodies, expressing hope for immediate action to implement its key outcomes amid the escalating pace of settlement expansion, colonist crimes, forced displacement, and the Judaization of Jerusalem and its holy sites across the occupied Palestinian territory, as well as the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to ongoing occupation crimes.

T.R.